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Cigarette pack labelling in 12 countries at different levels of economic development

Journal of Public Health Policy volume 32, pages 146–164 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

With increasing restrictions on cigarette marketing, the cigarette pack itself has become a main means of marketing. We describe a method to examine cigarette labelling and use it to evaluate packs collected from 12 countries at different stages of economic development. Health warnings were present on all 115 packs of cigarettes examined, but were on the front and back panels of only 68 per cent. Promotional labels were widespread, found on packs from all countries and more numerous (although not necessarily larger) than health warning labels in 10 of the 12 countries. Deceptive terms such as ‘light’ and ‘mild’ were observed on 42 per cent of all packs examined. The simple method described here can be used to compare cigarette labelling and potentially evaluate and track the implementation of cigarette labelling policy. We found health warning legislation poorly enforced and cigarette packs widely used to promote smoking and deceive smokers about health risks. The findings underline the need for generic (plain) packaging.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Investigators of the PURE study.16 The teams lead by the following investigators contributed to the cigarette pack collection for this study: R. Diaz (Argentina), A. Avezum (Brazil), S Rangarajan (Canada), F Lanas (Chile), Li Wei (China), Mario Vaz (India), R. Kelishadi (Iran), R Iqbal (Pakistan), K. Yusoff (Malaysia), P. Lopez-Jaramillo (Colombia)

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Affiliations

  1. Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Hassan Mir, Daniel Buchanan, Salim Yusuf & Clara K Chow

  2. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

    Anna Gilmore & Martin McKee

  3. Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom

    Anna Gilmore

  4. The George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Missenden Road, PO Box M201, Camperdown, 2050, NSW, Australia

    Clara K Chow

Authors
  1. Hassan Mir
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  2. Daniel Buchanan
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  3. Anna Gilmore
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  4. Martin McKee
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  5. Salim Yusuf
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  6. Clara K Chow
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clara K Chow.

Additional information

†CKC had the original idea and supervised HM, who developed the data collection instrument, collected data and drafted the article; DB contributed to data collection and analysis; AG provided expertise in tobacco control and policy research, contributed to the labelling categorisation, analysis, and revisions of the manuscript; MM has expertise in policy research and commented on manuscripts; CKC checked data analysis, revised the article and is guarantor. AG, MM, SY, and CC participated in the EPOCH (Environmental Profile of a Community's Health) collaboration and PURE (Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology) study. MM and SY both mentored CC in the EPOCH project, intellectually inputted into the study design and manuscript. All authors have given final approval for this article to be published.

To compare warnings and advertising on cigarette labels, the authors describe a method for evaluating information on the cigarette pack–itself a major marketing tool.

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Mir, H., Buchanan, D., Gilmore, A. et al. Cigarette pack labelling in 12 countries at different levels of economic development. J Public Health Pol 32, 146–164 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2011.3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2011.3

Keywords

  • cigarette pack labelling
  • promotional terms
  • deceptive labels
  • health warnings